Unity And Duality

By The Pathwork Guide

Greetings, my dearest friends. May this lecture be a blessing and an enrichment for all those who read these words. May you open your minds and your hearts so that you can understand deep within yourselves. And if you cannot understand immediately, then some of these words may take root in your psyche and the seeds will come to fruition later. The full understanding of this lecture may reach you only as you work your way through those deep layers of your unconscious where what I say here will find application.

There are two basic ways in which man can approach himself and his life. Or, to put it differently, there are two fundamental possibilities of consciousness in the human being: the dualistic plane of consciousness and the unified plane of consciousness. Let me briefly outline some of the aspects of both planes so as to make this lecture more understandable.

The majority of human beings live predominantly on the dualistic plane. The dualistic plane means that man sees, perceives, and experiences everything in opposites. It is always either/or: either good or bad, either right or wrong, either life or death. In other words, practically everything that man encounters, every human problem and every predicament is determined by this dualistic way of perceiving life.

The unified principle combines both opposites of the dualistic plane. Only occasionally does the dualistic plane experience a taste of the wide, limitless outlook, of the wisdom, and of the freedom of the unified plane.

In the unified plane of consciousness there are no opposites. In other words, there is no good or bad, there is no right or wrong, there is no life or death. There is only good, there is only right, there is only life. Yet it is not the kind of good, or the kind of right, or the kind of life that comprises only one of the opposites of the dualistic plane. It transcends it and it is of a completely different nature. That good, or that right, or that life which exists on the unified plane of consciousness combines both aspects of the dualistic way of life. In the unified state of mind no conflict exists, because the dualism is combined. As a result, the opposites no longer conflict with one another. This is why to live in a unified state -- in absolute reality -- is the bliss, the unlimited freedom, the fulfillment, and the unlimited realization of potentials that religion calls "heaven." This heaven is usually thought to be a place in time and space. This is not so. Heaven is a state of consciousness, one which can be realized at any time and in whatever shape an individual entity exists. By this I mean a human being in the flesh, as well as one who does not live in a material body.

The unified state of consciousness is a question of understanding or, as I often term it, of knowingness. On the dualistic plane life must be a continuous problem. Man's struggle in coping with the arbitrary and illusory division of the unified principle creates opposites, and therefore brings about conflicts. It creates tension, fight within man, and therefore conflict with the outer world.

Let us examine this particular struggle a little further and then try to understand the human predicament.

No matter how oblivious, how ignorant, or how unconscious he may be of it, there is a part in man -- his real self -- which lives in a unified state of mind, which expresses, which manifests, and which is the unified principle. Even those who have never heard of such a thing, those who are utterly ignorant either of these terms or of their meaning have a deep longing for and an unconscious sense of the existence of a different state of mind, and therefore of a different way of experiencing life from the one they know. They yearn for the freedom, for the blissfulness, and for the mastery of life that the unified state of consciousness affords.

However, this longing is misinterpreted by the personality. It is misinterpreted partly because it is an unconscious yearning for what is usually termed as happiness or fulfillment. But let us understand what is really meant by these words. It is through unification of the opposites on the dualistic plane that struggle or effort, fight or tension, conflict, anxiety or fear disappear. Consequently, the world is alive and the self is master. But not master in a tight, tense, hostile way, but master in the sense that life can be exactly what the individual determines it to be and decides it to be. This freedom, this mastery, this bliss, and this liberation from tension and from agitation in the human soul are both consciously and unconsciously longed for and therefore striven for.

This longing is misinterpreted partly because you don't know enough about it. It is only a vague feeling deep within your soul. But even when you do have the theoretical knowledge of such a state, then it is still misinterpreted for yet another reason. When freedom, mastery, unification and its resulting bliss -- in other words, the manifestations of the unified state of consciousness -- are striven for and attempted on the dualistic plane, then a tremendous conflict must ensue, because it is an absolute impossibillity to accomplish. This is what happens. Man strives for the fulfillment of this deep longing to transcend the ego and to find deep within himself a new state of consciousness in which all is one. When he seeks this on a plane in which all is divided, then he not only can never find what he seeks, but he must despair, and therefore split himself further in conflict because illusion creates duality.

This is what happens with people who are completely unaware of these possibilities. But it is also the case with people who are more spiritually enlightened but who are ignorant of the distinct differences that exist between these two planes. Such people also ignore how -- both in themselves and in their practical daily existence -- they can learn to transcend the dualistic plane.

Here is what happens when either the vague longing or the precise theoretical knowledge of the unified plane of consciousness is misread and is therefore striven for on the dualistic plane. If man senses and knows that there is only good, that there is only freedom, that there is only right, that there is only beauty, that there is only truth, and that there is only life without a threatening opposite, and if he tries to apply this perception on the dualistic plane, then he is immediately plunged in the very conflict of opposites that he needs to avoid. He then fights for one of the dualistic aspects and against the other. Such a fight makes the transcendence impossible.

Let us demonstrate this in a familiar everyday human problem, so that you can first understand and then apply these words better than in their abstract meaning. Man constantly finds himself plunged into issues with his surroundings. Let us assume that a person is in a quarrel with a friend. From where he sits, he is convinced that he is right. Therefore, immediately the friend has to be wrong. With man's dualistic understanding it can only be either/or. The outcome seems to matter more than the particular issue, for when the intensity of the emotions is truly tested, they often have no relationship to the issue at stake. They are commensurate with a life-or-death issue. Although man may think this irrational on a conscious level, unconsciously being wrong truly means being dead, for being wrong means to be denied by the other. On the dualistic plane, man's sense of identity is associated with the other person, not with his real self. As long as man experiences himself only as the outer ego self, then he must depend on others, as I shall explain in greater detail a little later. Only when man has realized the center of his being -- which is unification -- does his life no longer depend on others. Hence, even a slight quarrel becomes truly a matter of life or death. This explains the intensity of emotions and the intensity of the need of proving his right and of proving the other person's wrong.

On the dualistic plane each issue ends with either life or death. Life becomes important so as to avoid death. Often death is feared so much that it is run into head on. Such individuals are not free from a fear of death. Quite the contrary. Their constant struggle with life -- which is a result of their struggle against death -- renders them so unhappy that they are convinced that they do not fear death. This is an illusion as long as life is experienced on the dualistic plane. In other words, as long as one side is important and is therefore fought for, and the other side is threatening and is therefore fought against, vanquished, triumphed over. In any issue that you happen to be involved in, as long as you feel that you must win -- that one is so while the other is not so -- then you are deeply involved in the world of duality, therefore in a world of illusion, and therefore in constant strain, in constant suffering, in constant conflict, and in constant confusion. The more you fight in this way, then the greater the confusion becomes.

Man is geared and habitually trained -- by himself, by his upbringing, and by everything that he learns, that he absorbs, and that he perceives in his surroundings -- to fight in favor of one and against the other of any number of opposites. This applies not only to material issues and to physical manifestations of life, but even more to the subtle plane of concepts and of understanding. Every truth can be thus divided into two opposites, one being adhered to as the right idea and the opposite aspect being declared as the wrong idea, while in reality they both complement one another. On the unified plane of truth and fulfillment neither aspect is thinkable without the other. On the contrary, they complement each other. They are enemies only on the dualistic plane of consciousness.

Every conflict snowballs into intricate sub-conflicts, or sub-divisions of the primary dualistic split. Since all this is a product of illusion, the more the conflict goes on, the less it can be solved, hence the more hopelessly enmeshed in it does man become in it. Let us now return to our example and demonstrate how this is so. The more man proves his friend wrong, the more friction exists, and the less does he obtain what he thought he would obtain only by proving himself right and only by proving the other wrong. He believes that by proving himself right and by proving his friend wrong, then his friend will finally accept him and love him again, and therefore that all will be well. When he does not succeed, then he misinterprets his failure and he tries harder, for he thinks that he has not sufficiently proven his own right and the other's wrong. The rift widens and his anxiety increases. The more weapons he uses to win his fight, then the deeper into difficulties does he get, until finally he damages both himself and his friend, and he actually acts against his best interest. Then he is faced with a further conflict, which arises out of the first error and therefore the first dualistic split. In order to avoid a total rift, with all its real and imagined threats -- for real damage has now begun to be wrought -- he is now faced with the alternatives of either having to give in in order to appease and avoid damage for himself, or to continue fighting. Since he is still convinced of a total right versus a total wrong, such appeasement robs him of his self-respect, and he fights against that. Whether he uses this solution or not, he will be torn between the two alternatives of either fighting or submitting. Both create tension, anxiety, inner conflicts, and outer conflicts.

Thus, a new duality develops out of the first. The first is, who is right and who is wrong: "Only I must be right, otherwise all is bad." The second is: "Either I give in and assume a wrong that I cannot admit -- for it is either a total right or a total wrong -- or I continue to fight." Admitting a wrong means death, in a sense. So he is faced with the alternatives of either admitting a wrong -- which means death in his deep psyche -- in order to avoid the dreaded consequences and the possibility of a real risk, thereby putting life at a grave disadvantage -- which also means death in the deepest sense -- or of insisting on his total right. No matter where he turns, he finds death, total disaster, loss, annihilation. The harder he fights for one and against the other, the less there is to fight for, and the more against him do all the alternatives become. The illusion that one side was good and the other bad has brought the inevitable next step on this road of illusion, which is that all is bad. That is the fate of all the dualistic struggles, leading into further traps, all of which are the products of illusion.

When the road to the unified plane is chosen, then what at first had appeared as one good and one bad ceases to be so and one inevitably encounters both good and bad on both ends. When this road is pursued still further, then there no longer is any bad but there is only good. This road leads deep inside the real self, into truth that surpasses the fearful, little ego interests. When this truth is sought deep inside the self, then the unified state of consciousness is approached. Our example is a banal one and it can be translated into many everyday issues, big or small. It exists in a small squabble between two mates. It exists in a conflict between two countries at war. It exists in all the difficulties that mankind is engaged in, both individually and collectively. As long as a person finds himself in this dualistic illusory conflict, there must be hopelessness, for there is no way out on the dualistic plane of thinking. As long as man's existence is identified with the ego self, and therefore with the dualistic approach to life, then he cannot help but despair, no matter how much this despair is covered up or momentarily alleviated by occasional successes in "winning" on the desirable alternative of the two opposites. The helplessness, the hopelessness, and the wasted energy of the dualistic struggle rob man of his birthright. He can find this birthright only on the plane of unification.

Since all the rules, all the precepts, and everything that man learns and absorbs in his education and in his environment are geared to dualistic standards, then it is not surprising that he is totally attached to and adapted to this state of consciousness. And even when he hears of and learns about this possibility, he is still frightened of it. He cannot believe in it and therefore he clings to that which he knows. Here a vicious circle exists in that the dualistic rules and precepts, which condition man to this way of life, are in themselves a result of man's fear of giving up the egotistical state, which alone seems to guarantee him life. It appears to him that giving up this ego state means the annihilation of his individuality. This is utterly erroneous. So, man has these rules to protect him from his erroneous fears, and he clings to the false fears because of his indoctrination.

Before we discuss in greater detail why man clings to the painful dualistic state in spite of the immediate and the direct possibility of the unified plane of consciousness, I would like to say more about the latter and discuss how to realize it within yourself. What we call the real self, or the divine substance in man, or the divine principle, or the infinite intelligence, or any number of other names that mankind has chosen for the deep inner live center, exists in every human being. It contains all the wisdom and all the truth that man can possibly envisage. This truth is of such a far-reaching nature and is so directly accessible that no further conflict exists when -- and where -- this truth is allowed to take effect. There ceases to exist any of the ifs and buts of the dualistic state of life. The knowing of this inborn intelligence is of such a nature that it surpasses the ego intelligence. It is completely objective. It disregards the small, vain self-interest, and this is one of the reasons why it is feared and therefore man avoids contact with it. The truth that flows out of it equalizes the self with others in a way that not only is not the annihilation which the ego fears, but it opens up the storehouse of vibrant life force and energy that man usually discharges only to a minor degree and which he misuses in directing all his attention and all his hopes to the dualistic plane -- the plane of the ego, with its tightly-held opinions and conclusions, with its false ideas, with its vanity, with its pride, with its selfwill, and with its fear. When this live center is activated, then man begins his limitless unfoldment. Then his accomplishments become possible precisely because the little ego no longer needs them for its enhancement in order to find life on the dualistic plane. The more he opens himself up in this way, the freer he becomes, and therefore the stronger and the more secure he feels. This new insight not only eliminates this particular conflict and shows the right way to approach it and to straighten it out, but it also reveals important aspects of this person's general difficulties. The vision that he has gained through this experience, and its understanding, will enable him to eliminate many of the difficulties that he encounters in his life. The vibrant peace that comes through this extended understanding is of lasting value. It helps man's self-realization and it has very beneficial effects on his daily life. This is a typical example of a unified, intuitive understanding and knowing the truth. After the initial apparent need for courage and the momentary resistance to seeing a wider truth than the egotistical one, it is much easier than the struggle that ensues on the either/or plane of life.

Before you can bring yourself to that way of thinking and to that way of being, the tension will mount. For as long as you are still on the dualistic plane, then you struggle against this way of thinking because you falsely believe that the moment you first see and then admit a wrong in you and a right in another, then you submit and therefore you enslave yourself. You believe that you will become worthless and pitiful. From there -- in your fantasy life -- it seems only a step to complete annihilation. Hence, you feel that to leave the dualistic plane is the greatest of all possible dangers. The tension mounts as the conflicts tear you in several directions at once. But the moment you are willing to be in truth, the moment you are eager and prepared to see not merely your own little truth, nor to give in to the other's little truth in fear of the consequences if you do not -- in other words, when you wish to be in possession of the larger, more encompassing truth which transcends both your little truths -- in that moment a specific tension will be removed from your psyche. The way toward the manifestation of the real self will begin to open.

Let me recapitulate here what I have said previously. The two most significant obstructions to the real self are ignorance of its existence -- and therefore of the possibility to be connected with it -- and a tight, cramped psychic state, with tight, cramped soul movements. These two factors make contact with the real self -- and therefore with a unified state of existence -- impossible. I have often discussed the importance of observing your soul movements. When you fight against the dual aspect, and therefore you press for the unified state, then observe the soul movements coming forth. Superficially, you may lean on the apparent justification of what you press for. You may say: "Is it not perfectly justified and right that I am against this wrong in the world?" On the dualistic plane this may indeed be so. But in this limited outlook you ignore the fact that this wrong exists only because of this type of approach to the problem and the prevalent ignorance that there is another way to look at it. The resulting tension blurs the view that other aspects exist which unify what you deem right and what you deem wrong -- regardless of what the wrong actually is.

This simple act of seeking the truth has several prerequisites. The most important of these is the willingness to relinquish what one holds on to -- whether this is a belief, a fear, or a cherished way of being. When I say to relinquish, then I mean to question it and to be willing to see that there is more beyond one's outlook and one's conviction. This brings us back to what I said I shall discuss, namely why man is so terrified to relinquish the ego state -- hence the painful dualistic way of life. Why does he fear, and therefore resist so much, to entrust himself to and to commit himself to this deep inner center which is a reality, which combines and unifies all good, and which is instantly accessible? However, the inner center is beyond the personal little considerations of the ego.

The dualistic plane is the plane of the ego. The unified plane is the world of the divine center, of the larger self. The ego finds its whole existence on the plane in which it is at home. To give up this plane means to give up the claims of the little ego. This does not mean its annihilation. But to the ego it seems to mean this. The ego is actually a particle, an isolated aspect of the vaster intelligence, of the real, inner self. It is not different from it, only there is less of the real self "in" it. Since it is separated, disconnected, and limited, then it is less reliable and less secure than that from which it stems. But this does not mean that it needs to be annihilated. In actual fact, it will integrate with the real self so as to create one fuller, better equipped, wiser self, with more of the best qualities imaginable. But the separated ego fears that this integration will be its annihilation, its ceasing to exist. In its ignorant, limited way it feels that it exists only as a separated being. Hence it pursues further separateness. I know that I have said all this many times before, but it is important to think about it and to apply it in the context of this lecture. Since consciousness ignores the existence of the real self -- even if it is accepted as a theory, its living reality must be doubted as long as personal misconceptions are not eliminated -- it fears the soul movement of relaxing and letting go of the tight hold that prevents the realization of the real self. This is the constant struggle of the ego, until it ceases to fight against unification through repeated recognitions of a wider truth in every smallest personal issue.

The real self cannot manifest as long as personal inner difficulties and problems are not straightened out. But the process of doing this and the first inklings of self-realization often overlap, for the one furthers the other. Many of my friends can utilize these words in a new approach to their problems, although there is nothing new in my words as such. However, this specific way of looking at your basic human struggle may help you considerably further.

As long as man is totally identified with his separated ego, then he must cultivate more separation, which leads to self-idealization. This self-glorification and idealization -- from this point of view -- becomes the apparent salvation and the apparent guarantee to assuage your existential fears. To put it in simpler terms. The ego thinks: "If everyone around me thinks that I am special -- especially good, or especially smart, or especially beautiful, or especially talented, or especially happy, or especially unhappy, or even especially bad, or whichever specialty you may have chosen for your own personal idealized self-glorification -- then I will receive the necessary approval, the necessary love, the necessary admiration, and the necessary agreement that I need in order to live." This means that, somewhere deep down, you believe that you can exist only through being noticed by others, only through being affirmed by others, and only through being confirmed by others. You feel that if you go by unnoticed -- in other words, if no one knows of your existence -- then you cease to live. This may sound exaggerated, but it is not. It explains why some people's idealized self image is destructive and negative. They feel more confident in making themselves noticed than through positive specialness. So your salvation seems to lie in others, who would acknowledge your existence only if you are different -- that is, special. At the same time, the misinterpreted message from the real self wants you to master life. But you attempt to master it on the wrong plane, and therefore you believe that you must vanquish every resistance that is put in your way.

Each personal pseudo-solution is a hope to eliminate the obstructions put in your way. Which pseudo-solution you have chosen depends on individual character traits, on circumstances, and on early influences. Whatever they are -- and you know that there are three basic solutions: aggression, submissiveness, and withdrawal -- they are destined to triumph over others and to establish your freedom and your fulfillment in this way. You seem to be guaranteed your existence only when you are totally loved, totally accepted, and totally served by others. And this you hope to attain by triumphing over them. You see that you are governed by a succession of wrong conclusions, which are all completely different in reality. All these reactions and beliefs in you can be ascertained as existing only when you have learned to admit them; only when you question the meaning of a particular reaction and you look behind the facade and beyond what you pretend they mean. Once this admission is made, then it is easy to verify that all these misconceptions govern you and that they rob you of the beauty of reality. You will further come to see -- not as a theory, but as an experienced reality -- that your life does not depend on other people's affirmation of your existence; that you do not need to be special; that you do not need to be separate from others -- that this very claim traps you into a state of loneliness and of confusion. You will come to see that others will give you love and acceptance only when you do not wish to be better than they are, or special, or different from them. This love will come to you only when your life no longer depends on it.

When you have truly attained knowledge, when you are truly accomplished in whatever field this may be, then it cannot have the effect on others that it has when your accomplishment is meant to set you apart from others. In the one case your accomplishment will be a bridge to others, because it is not a weapon against them. In the other instance it will create antagonism because you wish to be accomplished in order to be better than others -- which always means that others should be less than you. When you need to be better through your accomplishments, then what you give to the world must turn against you because you offer it in a spirit of war. When you give of your accomplishment in order to enrich life and others, then both you and your life will be enhanced by it because what you offer is given in a spirit of peace. In the latter case, you become part of life. In first taking from life -- from the live center within yourself -- and then giving it back to life as an integral part of it, you act according to the unified principle.

When this struggle exists, "in order to live I must be better than others, I must be separate," then disappointment is inevitable. It cannot bring the desired result because it is based on illusion. The dualistic concept is "me versus the other." It is this illusory belief which makes the transition from the dualistic state to the unified plane of consciousness so difficult, for giving up this fight-against-the-other appears to imply the annihilation of the self. The more the other person is fought against, the less will he comply with the demand and the expectation of affirming the self, and the more will this be experienced as a danger equal to the alternative of giving up the fight itself. So every which way man turns to seems to be blocked. He makes himself utterly dependent on others, due to the illusory concept that otherwise he is lost, while at the same time he tries to overrun them and to triumph over them. He must resent the former and he must feel guilty about the latter. Both create intense frustrations and great anxiety. Both yield no salvation whatever.

Notice the initial disinclination to question your assumptions concerning any problematic issue in your life. The outer quarrel or the issue is so painful only because the inner quarrel is one between life and death -- or so you believe. The fallacy of this quarrel can be established only when you dare to question your reactions honestly and precisely. Even though some of you are quite accomplished in this Pathwork -- in self-facing -- up to a degree, nevertheless you still manage to hide the issue when it becomes really painful and frightening. This is your stumbling block, because your shying away from what appears so painful and so frightening makes it impossible to uncover the fallacy of your hidden belief. What you secretly hold on to -- born out of your dualistic outlook and the thus ensuing inner battle -- gives you the cramped inner movement which debilitates you. It paralyzes your free-flowing energies and it makes the transition into the unified plane impossible. When you look at your problems in a way that is as objective and as detached as is possible for your, expressing the wider outlook of the real self -- in other words, when you turn your best intent and your good will to the matter that disturbs you, in a genuine wish for impartiality -- then you will first notice a shrinking back from such a desire and a more or less either overt or subtle way of covering up your desire for flight. Catch yourself in this act and courageously forge on, questioning yourself further and deeper. You will then come to see that ultimately the outer quarrel or the difficulty is a symbolic representation of the inner quarrel in you in which you fight for life and against death, for existence and against annihilation. You will see what you believe is required from others in order for you to exist. When you have arrived at this level of your being, then you will be able to question your precepts that lay the foundation for this. This is the first step that will make possible, that will enable the transition from the dualistic error into the unified truth.

You will further notice that relinquishing ideas, relinquishing ideals, and relinquishing convictions also feels like annihilation -- for being wrong means dying, while being right means living. The moment you go through this opening-up-movement and you have the courage to want the truth -- and you envisage the possibility of a wider and more complete truth than you can see at the moment in whatever the issue may be -- then you will come to a new peace and to a new intuitive knowledge about the way things are. Something in your hardened psychic material will have loosened up and it will further prepare the way for your total self-realization. Each time you loosen it up, it will become a little easier and therefore the climate in your psyche will be more auspicious for the final awakening into your inner center of all life, of all truth, of the unified good of creation. Every step in this direction abandons another misconception, and each misconception represents another burden. The giving up of what first had seemed like security and protection from annihilation will now be disclosed as what it really is: as a burden, as suffering, as an imprisonment. Then you comprehend the preposterous fact that you are actually opposed to leaving the dualistic life, with all its hardship and its hopelessness. Perhaps now you can understand some of this and this will help you in your personal Path. When you apply this to your everyday life, then you will see that the abstract-sounding words that I use here are not something far away, but that they are accessible for every one of you. You will see that these words are practical and concrete, if only you are willing to see yourself in relationship to life in a wider truth than you are as yet willing to even contemplate.

On the dualistic plane you must have everything your way. You must win over life, you must win over others, you must win over circumstances. In other words, you must prove yourself to be stronger than all the other factors which may oppose you in your surrounding life. To be opposed means to lose, and losing, in the last analysis, implies your non-existence. That is what you are frightened of and why you are so intense in the struggle. That is why you always feel as though something much larger is at stake than the actual issue. This is why you deny the intensity of your emotions, because you know that what takes place on the unconscious level is not commensurate with the real reactions. If, at times, you win over the circumstances, is it really enduring peace that you gain? Not really, my friends.

You may be gratified and appeased for the moment, and you may even feel safe. But how long can you remain master over life under dualistic principles? The next issue endangers you all over again, and deep inside you know this, only you know it in the false way -- in the way that you believe this to be your undoing. Therefore, you must constantly live in the fear that you cannot always win. In this dependency -- in which you need life to be always according to your imagined needs so as to master it -- you must become resentful of those who prohibit your gratification. You must be resentful of life, which seemingly does not let you be. The message coming from the real self says: "Your birthright is perfect happiness, perfect freedom, and mastery over life." When you fight for this birthright under dualistic principles, then you remove yourself further and further away from the realization of yourself, in which you could truly have mastery, freedom, and the total fulfillment of yourself. But you seek all this with false means. They are as varied as are individuals and their character. In all these years we have discussed many of these false means, the pseudo-solutions, for example. If you re-study them in the light of this lecture, then you will understand on a deeper level what this is all about. You will see how you personally try to accomplish the fight, the false fight, one that only leads into more confusion and into more pain. The three basic pseudo-solutions are means for conquering life on the dualistic plane so as to guarantee your existence. The overt fight is just as opposed to truth and peace, it is just as aggressive as the submissive solution, whose hostility always smolders underground. Whatever your ways to win, you are dependent on others and on circumstances which are often way beyond your actual control, and therefore are doomed to failure. This anxiety and this futile struggle makes your psychic material brittle and hardened. The more this is so, the less you are able to contact the center of your inner being where you can find all that you could possibly need, where you can find vital well-being, productivity, and the peace of inner relaxation which is an integral byproduct of the real self.

The only way you can truly enter into the unitive state of life, in which you can truly be master, is to no longer need to triumph, to no longer need to win, to no longer need to be separate, to no longer need to be special, to no longer need to be right, to no longer need to have it your way, but by finding and discovering the good in all situations, whatever they are, regardless of whether you deem them either good or bad, either right or wrong. But this does not mean resignation, nor does it mean fearful giving in or weakness. It means going with the stream of life and coping with what is as yet beyond your immediate control, regardless of whether it is according to your liking or not. It means accepting where you are and accepting what life is for you at this moment. It means being in harmony with your inner rhythm. This will open the channel, so that finally total self-realization will take place. This then means that all your expressions in life are motivated by and lived through by the Divine Principle operating in you and expressing Itself through your individuality, and integrating your ego faculties with this Universal Self. This enhances your individuality, it does not diminish it. It enhances every one of your pleasures, it takes absolutely nothing away from you.

May every one of you comprehend that the truth is in you, that everything you need is in you. May you discover the truth that you actually do not have to fight and struggle as you constantly do. All you have to do is to see and to recognize the truth where you stand now. All you have to do at this time is to be open to seeing that there may be more than you see now and then to call upon your inner center and allow yourself to be open to its intuitive messages to you. May you find this possible exactly where you need it most at this particular moment. Your gauge is always that which feels most uncomfortable and which you are usually most tempted to look away from. Be blessed, continue your wonderful Path. This Path will bring you to the realization that you already have what you need and that you already are where you need to be. You merely look away because you are geared in the opposite direction. Be in peace. Be in God.

May 13, 1966